


promises to a broken heart

by yixingscat



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Angst, Breakup, Childhood Friends, F/M, Heartbreak, Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:35:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26569669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yixingscat/pseuds/yixingscat
Summary: baekhyun makes a promise he can’t keep, chanyeol finds himself alone.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Park Chanyeol/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	promises to a broken heart

**Author's Note:**

> so i don’t know what motivated me to post this but i’m posting it and i’m not sorry, my dudes

it’s funny how the smallest things in life can affect you in the greatest ways.

it’s funny how the smallest person could be such a big influence.

it’s funny how just the smallest amount of ink in a pen can write a whole book.

and it’s funny how just the smallest of threats can take a whole life.

chanyeol doesn’t quite remember the first time he met baekhyun, but it was a long time ago, and it was the best day of his life.

the two grew up together, every moment spent together since they met—whenever that was. chanyeol has vivid memories of a smiling six-year-old baekhyun, all the way to a sixteen-year-old. he never lost his smile, his irrevocably radiant mood that never failed to enlighten the gloomy aura that surrounded the tall, lanky boy since before he could remember.

baekhyun was chanyeol’s lifeline in elementary school, when kids half his size pushed him around about being so tall, he was always there to reassure chanyeol that one day, the giant himself would squash the bullies with his shoe like the roaches they are. and he believed him, he really did. he never doubted for a day that he wouldn’t be able to bring them down with the help of baekhyun’s encouragement.

“ _you can do it, can’t you, yeol_?” the young baekhyun crossed his arms, his strong stare fixed solely on the tall, thin male watching the group of boys approaching them.

“ _i don’t know, baekhyun. i’m skin and bones_.” young baekhyun slapped his shoulder with a scoff.

“ _yeah, but you’re tall and scary, and all you have to do is tell them to stop, and they’ll stop. at least you’re not short like them_.”

he never said no to the bullies that day, he just let them taunt him, all the while baekhyun watched disappointedly from the sidelines. he always wondered what would have happened if he had said no and did something.

“ _it’s okay, yeol,_ ” young baekhyun consoled him, although his face showed his real feelings; frustration. “ _you can do it one day. i know you can_.”

baekhyun was chanyeol’s best friend in middle school, he was always right beside him. people teased him less there, but it never really stopped. baekhyun was always there to make the taller’s day, to be the sunshine in a cloudy thunderstorm. baekhyun never left his side, chanyeol never left baekhyun’s. they were inseparable.

 _“we’re going to be something big one day, aren’t we_?” pre-teen baekhyun nudged his shoulder with a smile.“ _this town—this town will be nothing but vague memory ten years from now, don’t you think_?”

pre-teen gigantic chanyeol nodded in agreement although he’s not sure what baekhyun means. “ _sure. we’ll be whatever you want to be, baek_.”

“ _no, not what i want, what we want. no matter what, i’ll always be your best friend, okay_?”

“ _okay, baekhyun_.”

they’d always be best friend’s, right?

baekhyun was chanyeol’s everything in high school. he continued as his best friend, but friend turned into crush, and crush turned into date, and date turned into boyfriend. he was chanyeol’s boyfriend who protected him always, who stood by his side when it felt as if the weight of the world was balanced on his shoulders, when his long legs would give out, baekhyun was always there no matter what.

“ _i like you_ ,” sophomore baekhyun muttered while they sat across from each in chanyeol’s bedroom, faces closer than best friend’s faces should be. “ _like, a lot_.”

“ _m-me, too_ ,” chanyeol stuttered without realizing. “ _wait, no—i like you, not me. why would i say it like that? i made it sound like i like me, not you, but i do like you. a lot. i like you so much_ —“ his rambling was cut off from a pair of lips touching his own. his best friend—his crush—just kissed him after so many years together.

“ _you’re rambling_ ,” baekhyun said before he kissed him again. “ _that’s cute, don’t you think_?” chanyeol nodded. “ _good. let’s be together forever, yeah? but not just as best friends_?”

“ _y-yeah_.”

baekhyun smiled and chanyeol was sure his heart stopped. “ _we’ll always be together._ ”

and at that moment, chanyeol knew that baekhyun would always be there for him.

until he wasn’t.

they got into different universities, for different studies in different places, and things ended before chanyeol could blink. baekhyun had been the one to break it off, he’d been the one to initiate the process of the thing chanyeol dreaded the most; the moment they finally left each other. chanyeol’s heart was broken. he had lost the one thing he was sure he would never, ever lose. his heart was like a broken mirror, a reflection of his past shattered into millions of minuscule pieces just waiting to be stepped on by a heartless chanyeol. just ready to ruin him just as baekhyun had when he left chanyeol with a broken heart and so, _so_ many feelings of sadness, heartbreak, _hatred._

he found himself hating the one person who promised to never leave him, who swore to always be there no matter what happens, who tangled his heart in an inescapable web of what he thought was the love in its greatest form, but he was wrong.

baekhyun had left him.

chanyeol never thought he’d love again, never again. but that ended as well when a short girl with beat-up converse came marching into his life and stomped on his foot, literally. she was gorgeous despite the amount of acne littering her face, despite her messy ponytail and her unbuttoned uniform. he found her pretty, but she didn’t want to be called pretty. she wanted to be called a badass, and a badass she was.

she was a feisty little thing, she despised never getting her way or being in control, so she dragged chanyeol around, who at that time hadn’t even liked her, like she owned him because she had the benefit of his height. he was her bodyguard in terms of who was physically more likely to beat somebody up, and she was his bodyguard when it came to vocal fights. he fell in love with her just like he had done baek, only she never promised him that she’d never leave. that was better because at least he wouldn’t ever trust in a promise as fabricated as that, just like baekhyun’s.

they dated for a whole year before chanyeol proposed and his heart seemed to forget about baekhyun. his love and admiration for baekhyun began to fade away, until his heart was no longer the pile of ashes it used to be, but a spark rekindled to create a new form of true love; kang jae.

they married not long after and chanyeol was positive life couldn’t get any better, he was sure he was living in heaven when she told him that she was pregnant three months after their wedding and he was ecstatic. life couldn’t improve anymore and he was happy, he was finally happy after the only person in the world who ever loved him besides her left him. baekhyun broke their promise, he didn’t even say, “ _wait for me, yeol, i’ll come back. i promised you, after all_.”

chanyeol was living the life he always wanted with the person he wanted, someone he could always rely on without having to pinky promise and say stupid things like he did with baekhyun. he couldn’t believe he actually fell for baekhyun, believed his lies and deceptions, he really should’ve known that baekhyun would be the one ending it. how could he have been so naïve? that’s a question he cannot answer.

jae promised him forever without even having to say it, so she would always be there.

until fate decided to play its twisted games with chanyeol again, and he found himself sobbing on the hospital floor on the night that their child—their _daughter_ —was supposed to be born. his wife and his child had just died during the birth.

they tried their hardest to rehabilitate jae, to salvage the unborn child in her, but they couldn’t. neither lived, and guess what? chanyeol was all alone again. just like always.

he had long accepted his preordained fate that he was forever alone by the time he could hear the the squelching of boots in mud one night as he knelt in front of his daughter and his wife’s grave. he had figured that maybe it was supposed to be that way, he was supposed to be all alone. so he isolated himself from anyone who would be his company so that they wouldn’t get hurt because they’re with him. it felt like a curse, a spell of some kind, meant to deteriorate him into mere millimeters even though he was towering above all others he knew at six feet, one inch. he was destined to be abandoned by everyone.

 _“chanyeol_ ,” a voice said behind him as they placed their hand on his shoulder. the hand felt so light, like it was a ghost’s. “ _come on, chanyeol. you shouldn’t be alone right now_.”

maybe he wanted to be alone, maybe he wanted to face his destiny as completely isolated. maybe he just wanted to see reality as it is, not as someone could make it.

he was alone. always alone. jae left him alone. so did baekhyun.

only at that moment did he recognize the voice speaking to him from behind. his body felt as stiff as a statue, his shoulders felt as weak as his knees as they supported his body. it was a voice that haunted and plagued his mind for the longest time.

a sob escaped his throat, bitter and sour like bile. so many things had left in a matter of years, such little time, but things were returning at an indescribable pace, hitting right in all the wrong places.

baekhyun sighs and looks down at the boy he hasn’t seen in so long. he’s no longer a boy, but a man, stronger and more built than he used to be. the elder withdraws his hand from the wide, trembling shoulder of the sobbing man. he circles around him, dropping to his knees in front of him. he embraces him, taking the larger body into his grasp like he used to. “ _shhh_ ,” baekhyun whispered in his ear as he rests the taller’s head on his shoulder. “ _it’s alright, yeol. i’m here. i won’t leave you. i promise_.”

maybe he meant it this time.

**Author's Note:**

> mwahahahahaha, feel the pain of the angst i gift you!!! i’m gonna crawl back into my hole of darkness and sadness again, bye bye :)


End file.
